By Ryan Yeo

Eternal Summer of My Homeland
Agnes Chew
Epigram Books (2023) / 184 pages / SGD 20.90

Promising premises abound in Eternal Summer of My Homeland, Agnes Chew's first short story collection. Each story is a slice-of-life exploration of a different person in Singapore. I enjoyed how believable most of the situations felt – just like in real life, there are loose ends that remain untied, ambitions that remain unfulfilled, and conflicts that remain unresolved.

I also enjoyed the diversity of stories centred in the collection. My statement here comes with several caveats. One or two stories felt rather clichéd: in 'Diary of an Employee', for example, Chew introduces us to the all-too-familiar Singaporean protagonist who just wants to be the best worker they can be. The cast of characters is also not very diverse. Through the collection of 11 stories, by my count, there are only two stories that feature non-Chinese protagonists: 'The Only Constant' and 'Don't Be Foolish'. For a collection that otherwise explores a diverse cast of characters across the socioeconomic spectrum, the lack of ethnic diversity came as a bit of a disappointment for me.

But otherwise, many of the stories featured unique premises that were refreshing for a Singlit collection. In 'Did You Know', a newly pregnant mother grapples with her decision to raise a child amid climate change. In 'When What Is Linear Meanders', Chew invites us into the life of Sonya, whose life falls off the beaten path after she is diagnosed with scoliosis and forced to undergo surgery that would set her behind her peers. I was particularly excited at Chew's idea of using the meandering spine as a metaphor for a meandering life trajectory – what kinds of choices would Sonya make as she undergoes medical treatment? What kinds of perceptions would she face about her body, and how would that serve as commentary on taking the road less travelled?

Unfortunately, like many other stories in the collection, 'When What Is Linear Meanders' offers a lot of promise but fails to deliver. The prose in many of the stories is also a little awkward. Often, the stories dive into long bits of narration that feels forced and takes me out of the story as a reader. Consider the following passage in 'When What Is Linear Meanders', for example. Chew describes a pivotal point in Sonya's life when she falls behind her peers for the first time:

Three years later, Sonya received her PSLE certificate, graduating bottom of the class. It wasn't a matter of not being able to catch up. She simply gave up. She didn't see the point in doing her best anymore. Whatever for? To obtain excellent grades so she could reunite with her former classmates, for whom PSLE was a thing of the distant past, who would already be preparing for their O-Level exams? No, she didn't want to meet any of them. It would be best if their paths never crossed again.

Much to the chagrin of her parents, Sonya went to a neighbourhood secondary school under the Normal (Technical) track. She knew all her former friends were either in the Express or Special stream. Some had even been placed in the Gifted Education Programme. But these things no longer mattered to her. Sonya went ahead even though it was common knowledge that those who were assigned to the Normal (Technical) track would end up at the Institute of Technical Education. Everyone knew what its acronym stood for. ITE: It's The End. Did she have a choice?

This style of narration pervades the entire story. But an entire story driven by a narration of events isn't immersive, and I began to feel tired of the prose after a while. Here's the other downside: Sonya – who otherwise has the potential to be an extremely fascinating character – feels flat and artificial. I wonder how much further the story could have gone, had we been given more insight into the inner world of Sonya. How was Sonya's day-to-day affected by the surgery? What were some of her thoughts like? How did Sonya's interactions with the people around her change? Because Sonya's inner world is unexplored, her character stays stagnant throughout the story, and we miss out on what could have been an impactful journey through a meandering life.

Furthermore, I would have liked to see where the story could have gone had Chew injected more variety into the formal elements of her stories. The lengths of the sentences and paragraphs in all her stories tend to be very similar. As a result, there isn't much variation in the prose. I wonder how much livelier the stories would have felt had Chew been a little more intentional with paragraph and sentence length, rather than choosing to convey emotions and emphasis through narration alone.

Many of the stories in the collection face similar issues: their characters and premises promise to be fascinating, but the blunt, pervasive narration means that this potential never comes to fruition. Consider Nadine, the protagonist in 'The Only Constant' who returns home after studying overseas and finds it difficult to connect with her childhood friend Mo. The story does little to move past superficial descriptions of how they slowly lose connection with each other. As a result, by the time the story concludes, Nadine feels like the same character we'd known at the start of the story, and there is no notable progression or takeaway that I got from reading it.

Or consider Bee Geok, the protagonist in 'Home' with an intriguing backstory: she is an old woman who has been living in Changi Airport for a little under two years, and through her interactions with the travellers learns to confront her regrets. The story concludes with Bee Geok looking at a stranger straight in the eye, saying: "This is my home." It is a powerful ending, but the oomph of the last line doesn't feel earned. After all, the story does not explore the connection that Bee Geok has with the airport terminal to any depth. Instead, the story spends a lot of time taking us through narrations of Bee Geok's memories with her children. These memories are important to characterise Bee Geok but do nothing to connect her to the airport. I would have loved to see Bee Geok's reflections that arise from her interactions with the airport environment around her. What parts of the airport reminds her of home? What kinds of travellers did she meet, and how did they remind her of her past? How is the transience of the airport connected with the transience of her memories? These are questions that are unaddressed through the story. Bee Geok and her connection to "home" feel flat as a result.

So far, I have said a lot about how the premises are promising. But Chew doesn't need to look far for inspiration on how to take her premises to their full potential. 'Garden City' is the first story in Chew's collection, and it serves as a great example of how to take an interesting premise and turn it into a deep, emotional story. 'Garden City' takes us on a journey through the lives of Hui Shan and her parents. In particular, it explores her relationship with her father, who secretly tends to a garden as a way to remember his late wife. The story explores some very interesting tensions: what happens when Hui Shan finds out about the secret garden? How will the characters respond when the authorities discover that the garden is built on government-owned land? How does the garden serve as a metaphor for the connection or separation between Hui Shan and her father? Unlike the earlier examples I raised, 'Garden City' does live up to its promise, because Chew doesn't stop at descriptive narrations. Consider this excerpt from the story, which paints a compelling image of Hui Shan's father:

The next morning, Hui Shan's father was back on the open patch of land. Tirelessly, he worked for fifty, maybe sixty, minutes. His greyish-white singlet, streaked with soil, clung to his ribs. Pausing for a moment, he pulled off his top, wrung out the sweat and began to survey the verdure.

A smile crept onto his face as his eyes fell on the lush, sprawling vegetation. His pandan, lemongrass, chilli padi, Thai basil and curry leaf plants – their leaves were so green, so glorious. His wife would be so pleased, if only she were here. With calloused fingers, he caressed the splendid blue petal of a butterfly pea flower. "Piao liang," he murmured to himself. Beautiful.

The prose here is free from the shackles of narration. Instead, Chew paints a vivid picture of the sights and sounds that Hui Shan's father experiences. The scene is centred on what the character sees and feels: the colours of a "glorious" green and "splendid" blue; a greyish-white singlet that is "streaked with soil" and drenched with sweat. The tenderness he feels for his wife is not conveyed through narration, but through his tender action of caressing the flower petal and calling it beautiful. Thus, Chew is not simply telling us how he feels, but showing it through his actions and perceptions. Finally, of course, notice that Chew is far more intentional with the formal elements of prose in this excerpt. She diversifies the length and structure of the sentences, and even inserts the father's thoughts directly into the prose. These make the prose much more compelling to read.

The prose is not the only compelling aspect of 'Garden City'. In this story, the characters also feel much more alive because there is movement as the story progresses. Hui Shan is not a static character – by the end of the story, she learns lessons about her relationship with her father, and her connection with her father deepens. Similarly, Hui Shan's father is also a very different person at the end of the story, as he learns to grapple with feelings of loss and betrayal. By showing us how the characters grow, the characters feel more real. And when the characters learn lessons for themselves in a believable way, I can't help but learn something as a reader, too.

So Chew does have the tools she needs to write a fascinating and compelling short story collection. She is certainly in no shortage of fascinating premises and has talked about her inspiration for the stories in this collection in interviews elsewhere. She has also shown her ability to take these premises and bring them to life in 'Garden City'. I only wish that she has done the same for the other stories, as well. I will be eagerly keeping an eye on Chew's future work: if she retains the creativity from her debut collection and adds the depth of exploration that she is certainly capable of, we might have a beautiful piece of work waiting for us.

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